Meet the Browns (2008)

Pretty Good

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

I have noticed that the new car smell has worn of Tyler Perry...at least in the minds of many people. I, for one, still enjoy most his work. And there were aspects of this film which I really like...and a few things I didn't.Let's start with the negatives. First. I don't see what Madea had to do with this film, and the insertion of her character for a few minutes seemed intrusive, unnecessary, and distracted from the film's story. I know a lot of people love the Madea character, but it had no place here. Second, a couple of characters seem to have rather drastic character changes during the course of the film, and while we all have our days, it seemed that these character changes were thrown in to make the film work. This is most obvious with Angela Bassett's character who goes from a fairly positive upbeat woman even when the chips are down, to a very bitter woman in regard to her love interest...and for no good reason.On the other hand, the basic story here is solid. A mother is working her hardest (literally) to raise her high school son and two younger daughters in Chicago. She loses her job, through no fault of her own, and falls upon really hard times...absolutely broke. At the same time she gets word that she should travel to Georgia to her father's funeral...a father she never met. With no options, but bus tickets for her and her children, she does so out of desperation. The family she never met welcomes her in, and as is typical with a Tyler Perry film, at least a couple of the family members are...well, let's say funnily odd. And, despite her protestations, a romance begins with basketball coach (who has his professional eye on Angela's high school son) who takes an instant liking to Angela's character. And that's where the film breaks down a bit for me -- the coach (played by Rick Fox) is under suspicion for most of the film...for no good reason.Angela Bassett is a darned good actress, and continues in that tradition here. In my view, it's director Tyler Perry who mismanages her character. Rick Fox, who is probably no great actor, is nonetheless pleasant here as the love interest, and you can buy into his character (and the remarkably white teeth). Lance Gross as the high school aged son is equally as pleasant, although it seems to me that there's a conflict between seeming to be the perfect son who briefly turns to drug dealing...again, I think Tyler Perry flubbed this characterization as writer and director. David Mann's character is too far over the top for me to feel right about his performance; this is not a real life character. I would say the same about Sofia Vergara's character. More and more I am liking Lamman Rucker, here a member of the Georgia family.I do think there are too many inconsistencies in characterizations in this film. Yet, I still enjoyed it. I guess you could say that this Tyler Perry effort seemed just a tad bit amateurish. But then again, this was one of his earlier efforts. I'll squeeze out a 6 here because several of the characters were quite appealing and the film had a good moral behind it.

Yes folks, Tyler Perry is back, with all the wifebeating, moralizing, home cookin' and inappropriate jokes about drugs and assault that his target audience (y'know, churchgoin' black folk) has come to expect and cherish (albeit with diminishing returns) from his films.Surprisingly here, he had a solid cast and a decent enough script that it could have been just as touching and funny as Madea's Family Reunion unexpectedly was, if he could just avoid the maudlin twists of melodrama, the manufactured strife that continually frustrated the film's otherwise successful attempts at ingratiation. Just when everything is going good, when you're touched even as the manipulation shows its seams, the find finds something to bring you down, be it a dredging of past, a miscommunication or even a preposterously-timed shooting, there's just something that makes you go, "Why?" Leave it be, it's working." The acting is not impeccable (that there's not a lot of subtlety or nuance involved in the proceedings goes without saying), but it has a charming down-home vibe to it; these characters feel lived in, even if they're obvious constructs. Tyler Perry's doppleganger Madea is featured on the cover and the menu screen, but really, other than a character attesting to being her daughter, Madea gets a whopping *one scene*, and it's completely, 100% superfluous to the story (she's getting chased by the cops while her flamboyant ex-husband watches on the local news), and at that, feels hideously tacked on.One point that intrigues me about the psyche of Tyler Perry, which, as stated in the Madea's review, is full-on for all to see, is his seeming distrust of full-blooded, dark-skinned black men. In all three films I've seen, the three major, romantically-involved, dark-skinned black male characters have been: a wifebeater, a wifebeater, and a man who threatens to beat his wife when she has the audacity to request long-overdue child support. While on the flipside, the women all find true love falling into the arms of genial, light-skinned black men of more caramel complexion, and I have to wonder if somewhere in his mind, there's some deep-seated rejection as the lighter skin is somehow "better", but he can't have her fall in love with a white man. Just something to think about.The film, like all of Perry's, is easy to watch and never becomes a chore, but where Diary of a Mad Black Woman was an ungainly monster that gave you whiplash in its genre shifts, and where Madea's Family Reunion managed to put it all together, Meet the Browns is situated right in the middle, with enough success to be pleasant, but enough mistakes to make you wish it was better.{Grade: 6.25/10 (high C+) / #19 (of 57) of 2008}

This movie does not deserve the rating it has. Any more I can't go by the ratings here on IMDb because I must have a different taste in movies than everyone else. The acting in this was a toss up. Some of the actors/actresses were , imo, not very good. Angela Basset was terrific as well as Rick Fox. The Leroy Brown character was funny at first and then he just got annoying. Same goes for Vera. The story line was very good and very touching. I'm sure there is a lot of single parents, not just mothers, out there that have felt or do feel the same as Brenda does. I don't want to go in to the movie that much because I don't want to spoil it, but Brenda is a single mother that is struggling with money and finds out that her father that she never knew had died. She takes her kids to GA for the funeral and meets family she never knew she had. In the will he leaves a house for her that needs some TLC. Since she doesn't Have the money her new Family helps restore it without her knowing. Some of the previews may be misleading. It is not completely about basketball although it has some in it. It is a very touching story and I recommend it ton anyone. But like i said. Everyone has their own opinions on movies.

This movie should be #58 on the top 100 list! You cannot give any movie with great actresses like Jenifer Lewis and Angela Bassett a bad rating. Irma P hall once again plays the grandmother type character with all the wisdom. What was the point of putting that Latina's character in this movie. Madea has a walk on role. It would have been better if they would have gave Madea more lines in this movie. It was more than a coincidence that Rick Fox's character happened to live in Georgia and visiting Chicago. This movie does what very few movies do. It mixes comedy with serious tones. The Brown family was crazy throughout the movie. We also have a single mother trying to raise three children whose job just got terminated and lights got cut off. Then she inherits a run down house in Georgia. Then the lady's son gets shot. Then he gets well and becomes a professional basketball player. Then she ends up getting married. And they live happily ever after. The son's father who never wanted to be in his life shows up after he becomes a professional basketball player.